Business lending is on the rise and that spells good news for the Bay Area economy.

Businesses are seeking financing to expand operations, make acquisitions and upgrade equipment while others are refinancing to take advantage of today’s historically low interest rates.

Chatter on the region’s cocktail-party circuit tells the story. One large real estate investor was touting last month his ability to pay for tenant improvements with a loan backed by the lease, a loan that he said was hard to secure not too long ago.

And it was just six months ago that a San Mateo real estate attorney, working with his share of frustrated clients trying to raise bank financing, joked that a banker’s definition of a well-qualified borrower is one who doesn’t need the money.

Whether it’s business owners becoming more confident that now is the time to make that purchase or bankers eager to lend as they sit on large pools of cash, it’s shaping up to be a “borrower’s market,” as one Bay Area banker put it.